Sales of CCTV cameras have increased sharply after the government unveiled its plan to require all day care centers to install the surveillance devices, officials said Sunday.

Data from online shopping mall Auction showed Sunday that its CCTV camera sales from Jan. 9 to 22 increased by 40 percent compared to the same period last year. G Market, another online retailer, saw an on-year increase of 56 percent over the last two weeks. 

The fad is likely to have been touched off by nationwide concerns about child safety, touched off by a recent incident a day care center in Songdo, Incheon, where a worker beat a 4-year-old for not finishing her food.

“It is not uncommon for a social issue to affect sales, but this particular case has even larger ramifications given that it’s related to children’s safety. We are seeing sales increase to not only institutions, but individual customers as well,” said an Auction official.

An increasing number of individual consumers purchased surveillance cameras that they could install in their homes and link to their smartphones, which allowed them to keep an eye on their children while at work. Auction said it had sold two to six times more of these “network” surveillance cameras in the past two weeks.

According to the Justice Ministry, the number of child abuse cases in Korea has been on the rise. Monthly reported cases went from 1,038 in 2013 to 1,416 in 2014, an increase of over 30 percent.

Policymakers held a ministerial-level meeting to discuss possible measures to reduce child abuse, such as toughening requirements for child care workers and ensuring stern punishment for abusers. The meeting was presided over by Hwang Woo-yea, the education minister and deputy prime minister for social affairs.

“Child abuse is a serious crime that must be rooted out in our society. Authorities must sternly enforce punishment of perpetrators and the facilities they are affiliated with,” Hwang said at the meeting, also attended by the ministers of justice, welfare, gender equality and family, at the Korea Childcare Promotion Institute. National Police Agency Chief Kang Sin-myeong was also present, as was Yoo Jeong-bok, mayor of Incheon.

After the Incheon incident, officials vowed series of measures against child abuse such as a “one strike” system, in which a day care center would be shut down after a single case of child abuse and the head of the facility would be permanently banned from holding similar jobs.

The ministers attending Saturday’s meeting agreed on mandatory installation of closed circuit television cameras at all day care centers and pushing for tougher punishment of perpetrators. They also discussed the possibility of holding personality tests for all child care workers and implementing character education courses for future workers, as part of the effort to require higher qualifications for child care workers.

Another issue discussed at Saturday’s meeting was the relatively poor working conditions of child care workers, which some experts have said to be an underlying cause of the abuse cases. The average monthly salary for day care center workers in Cheonju, North Chungcheong Province, ranged from 1.1 million won to 1.5 million won ($1,000-$1,400), according to the city government. The legal minimum monthly salary for 2014 was 1.09 million won, based on minimum wage and a 40-hour work week.

Minister Hwang said the government must apply tougher job requirements for child care facilities, but at the same time needs to “improve the working conditions (of child care workers) so they can put all their efforts into taking care of children.

“Some 20 issues were discussed at the meeting, which will be reviewed at respective ministries. We’ll hold another ministerial-level meeting in early February, where we will announce comprehensive countermeasures (for child abuse).”

By Yoon Min-sik (minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)